&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspInsight from InfoTrends

Though his Landa Corporation did not exhibit at Graph Expo, Benny Landa was in Chicago showing analysts and press some nanographic print samples whose quality was much improved over what was shown at drupa. My biggest complaint with the Landa samples at drupa was the streaking, and that has been reduced significantly since May. Landa described the company’s progress on quality using an S curve to track a period of development, followed by rapid quality increases starting around the time of drupa 2012. He said that there would be significant improvements between now and China Print 2013. According to Landa, as quality climbs on this S curve, it reaches quality levels achievable by offset lithography.

Source: Landa Corporation

During his presentation at the InfoTrends client breakfast, Landa also claimed to have collected $1 billion in orders at drupa. (Some sources that I’ve seen since then put this figure at $800 million.) Though he did not describe what was behind these figures, one way to do a “back-of-the-envelope” calculation is to take the 400 or so signed letters of intent and multiply that by an estimated $2.5 million average equipment sales price. Landa has not given public pricing guidelines for its products, but he did state that there was significant interest in the larger format (approximately B1) cut-sheet Landa S10 model. If one assumes that the B2-format Landa S7 would be comparable in price to the Indigo 10000, which HP has said will have a list price of around $1.5 million, then it is not outlandish to suggest an average of $2.5 million across the entire product line for such a back-of-the-envelope estimate, particularly if a lot of the signed letters of intent were for the largest format modals. In addition, though Landa spoke more about interest in the S10 cut-sheet offering, his wider format continuous-feed devices will also be likely to have a multi-million dollar price tag.

Landa would not confirm that his company is exhibiting at China Print 2013 (May 14-18, 2013 in Beijing), but that is the soonest possibility that the public will have a chance to see the Landa offerings at a trade show.

Note: This blog is an excerpt from a longer InfoTrends analysis piece on the top take-aways from Graph Expo 2012. The full analysis is accessible to InfoTrends’ Production consulting service clients and is also available in the InfoTrends document store.